Coach Willie Schaefer was making no excuses for Dalefield's 4-3 loss to Indians in their Wellington premier division men's hockey competition match at Clareville on Saturday.
It was Dalefield's first defeat of the season and while there was merit in a second-half effort which saw them come from 3-0 down at the break to lose by just a solitary goal, Schaefer described the overall performance as "disappointing and poor".
"In all honesty we deserved to lose, you can't expect to give a quality side like Indians a three- goal start, you just can't. Overall they were better than us, no argument."
The need to start strongly and place early pressure on their opposition was very much the talk in the Dalefield camp leading into the game but, as it happened, they struggled to get any intensity and consistency into their play throughout the first half.
"I don't know whether it was complacency or not but the attitude was nowhere near where it needed to be, it was like we were just going through the motions and expecting the goals to come," Schaefer said. "And we were pretty average on defence as well."